Article by Ronald J. Scalise Jr.
The 2025-2026 academic year marks a significant milestone in production for the Tulane Law Review. This year celebrates the publication of Volume 100 of the Review, an achievement worthy of great jubilation. As the twelfth oldest law school in the United States, Tulane’s flagship law review is not far behind its home institution in terms of longevity. Despite the centennial volume number, the Tulane Law Review is even older than a century. The Tulane Law Review began publishing in 1916 as the Southern Law Quarterly. Its very first article was Louisiana: A Story of its Legal System and was written by the famous scholar of evidence and the father of American comparative law, John Henry Wigmore. For three years, the Southern Law Quarterly published articles not only of national interest but also of particular interest to Louisiana lawyers and comparative scholars. As its name suggests, the Southern Law Quarterly published four issues a year. But each issue was approximately 80 to 100 pages for a total of around 400 pages per volume—the equivalent of approximately one issue in a modern-day volume.
Unlike today’s student-run law reviews, the Southern Law Quarterly was a hybrid endeavor between alumni and students, as it was published, edited, and issued by both the “[a]lumni and [s]tudents of the College of Law of Tulane University of Louisiana.” The first volume of the Southern Law Quarterly lists the editorial board as including one faculty advisor as well as an equal number of “alumni” editors and “undergraduate” editors. Interestingly, only the alumni editors have titles, such as case editor, reports editor, and editor in chief. The student editors, on the other hand, were merely recorded in one column in two alphabetical lists, perhaps an indication that the first alphabetical group was senior to the second.
In their first issue, the editors explained their goals and the purpose of the journal: “Our primary object is to be of immediate practical assistance to the bench and bar of this and the neighboring states. In the short notes upon the recent, but not necessarily the latest, cases, the law will be stated succinctly and impartially.” The editors further noted that cases and problems from “Southern courts” would receive special focus, as would “the striking features of the peculiar legal theory of Louisiana.” Finally, legal education and its improvement were also singled out for focus by the journal.
Unfortunately, the journal was short-lived. By 1918, after only three issues, the journal suspended publication. The editors at the time explained their plight succinctly:
This issue of the Quarterly is the last that will appear until peace time conditions are so far restored that publication can be resumed with expectations of success. The engagement of the members of the Board of Editors in military service or other war activities has made it impossible for the present to maintain the standard that we have set for ourselves as justifying the existence of the Quarterly.
Indeed, at the time of its first issue, the Southern Law Quarterly boasted twenty-one members: ten alumni editors, ten student editors, and one faculty advisor. By November of 1918, the number of alumni, students, and faculty involved in publication was down to six in total.
Publication of the Southern Law Quarterly resumed in December of 1929, but this time under a new name: the Tulane Law Review. No explanation is given as to why publication was not resumed sooner after the end of World War I or why the name was changed. In the early days, the structure of the Tulane Law Review appears to have been in flux. The new journal had fourteen student editors (many of whom had various titles), twenty-four alumni editors, three bar association editors, and a board of advisory editors. Arthur D. Parker, Jr. was the Student Editor, and Wood Brown was the Civil Law Editor. By Issue 2 of Volume 4, Brown had been renamed as the “Student Editor in Chief,” as Parker had “resigned his position due to ill health.”
By the next year, Volume 5, the journal—in addition to the above roles and positions—had an alumni editor in chief, Lloyd J. Cobb. The position of alumni editor in chief disappeared sometime in 1941 between the close of Volume 15 and the advent of Volume 16. The Board of Alumni Editors, however, remained. The alumni board was not merely an honorific for its members’ curriculum vitae. Rather, the stated purpose of the Board of Alumni Editors was to provide “a steady source of material to supplement the writings of the Student Board of Editors.” In fact, for the first several years, the members did just that, “producing comments for the Review.” Over time, however, the student editors developed expertise and experience, and the “activity of the alumni editors declined.” By 1980, the Board of Alumni Editors was down to five members, and by 1981 it was dissolved in its entirety.
Still, however, special expertise from scholars around the world was sought. Comparative law editors were added in Volume 6, and by Volume 7 their role had expanded and their number increased. They were named “contributing editors” and included some of the most distinguished comparative scholars from around the world.
Unlike the Southern Law Quarterly, which was an alumni and student collaboration, the Tulane Law Review began its life as a journal published “by the Faculty, Students and Alumni of the Tulane University College of Law.” By the time of Issue 3 of Volume 9 of the Tulane Law Review, the byline described the journal as “Published . . . by the Tulane Law Review Association” but “Edited by the Faculty and Students of the Tulane University College of Law.” Only in 1970 would the byline change once again to focus on the student work and recognize that the journal was then as it is now, “Edited by the Students of the Tulane University School of Law.”
Like the Southern Law Quarterly, the Tulane Law Review was published four times a year for over fifty years: December, February, April, and June. In 1982, with the start of Volume 57, the Review regularly began producing five issues, and in 1983, Volume 58 increased publication to six issues. Six issues remained the standard until 2016 with Volume 90 when the number of issues decreased back to five. Today, in addition to the five print issues, the Review publishes an online issue as well.
Like the fluctuating numbers of issues, the focus of the Tulane Law Review has changed over the years. From its inception, the Tulane Law Review not only printed “matter it deems worthy of publication” but also focused on “civil law codification and statutory interpretation.” Its focus was arguably set by Issue 1 of the Southern Law Quarterly and its rich history demonstrated commitment to those priorities. Starting with Volume 6, the focus on comparative law was clear as the journal, at that time, introduced a new section of the law review “devoted to comparative law, edited by a select board of contributing editors chosen from the law faculties of the Harvard law school and the Tulane law school.” As a reflection of the commitment to comparative law, the Review’s motto changed to specialize in “civil law, comparative law, codification and statutory interpretations” and remained so until the late 1940s or early 1950s. Eventually, the Tulane Law Review dropped the reference to “statutory interpretation” and eventually began to brand itself as “[d]evoted to the Civil Law, Comparative Law and Codification.” In 1988, the focus was slightly altered again, and with the advent of Issue 1 of Volume 63, the Tulane Law Review promoted itself as “National Law Journal Distinguished for Coverage of Civil and Comparative Law.” Finally, in 1994, the emphasis morphed once more to the current formulation of the focus of the Tulane Law Review as a journal “Devoted to the Civil Law, Comparative Law and Admiralty.”
But the Tulane Law Review is more than just words on a page. It is a concerted and collective effort of students, faculty, and alumni, spanning years, decades, and generations. This collective effort has yielded an impact and an influence that is hard to estimate. Rather than engage in grandiloquent descriptions of the effect the Tulane Law Review has had for over a century, this contribution provides an overview of the people who have been involved, the work that has been published, and the challenges that have been and surely will be overcome by the journal in the future.
About the Author
Ronald J. Scalise Jr., John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law, Tulane University Law School.
Citation
100 Tul. L. Rev. 1